Wascana Racing Canoe Club hosts Canada Day Regatta

The Wascana Racing Canoe Club hosted its annual Canada Day Regatta this weekend.

The event saw more than 100 athletes compete, making it one of the biggest events of its kind.

This year’s event had an international flavor to it as three teams travelled from the United States to take part.

Mia Overton, who is an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City River Sport Canoe Kayak club, said that the closeness of the paddling community led to her club coming up to compete.

“The paddling community is pretty tight knit, even internationally. So there’s some coaches up here that me and our head coach at Oklahoma City have worked with at a variety of events over the years and so we knew this was going to be a great race and decided to bring the kids up.”

Overton and her team were not the only international competitors, they were joined by Marsh Jones and his team from the Minneapolis Minnesota area also made the trip up.

Jones had high praise for the club and for Wascana Centre.

“The facility, the venue here is just phenomenal. This is one of the nicest venues in North America … the water, the club house here, the people at the club here are just great.”

Teresa Laplante was working the event and has served as an organizer in the past. Laplante said that the event has grown over the years to become the biggest regatta in Western Canada.

Laplante said it has been the last couple of years where teams from the United States have begun coming up to compete.

Laplante said that she has seen the sport grow locally as Canada has become more successful internationally.

“Canada has been doing very well in the Olympics the last few years and I think that has been a great platform for our sport … kids see that and want to strive to be like that.”

The regatta wrapped up Sunday and some teams are staying longer for a training camp.